Locals prepare for Spartan Race

By HOMER MARQUEZ Herald News Editor

Published 8:09 am, Sunday, December 1, 2013

Photo: Homer Marquez/Plainview Hearld

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Members of F.I.T Plainview train in the early morning as they prepare for a 12-mile extreme obstacle course known as the Spartan Race. Pictured on top are Tiffany Amador, Becky Balderas and Stephanie Balderas. Bottom from left is Al Longoria, Misty Valles and Manuel Balderas. Not pictured but competing in the race are Jamie Salinas, Robert Gallardo, Kaleb Ty and Sarah Reyna. less

Members of F.I.T Plainview train in the early morning as they prepare for a 12-mile extreme obstacle course known as the Spartan Race. Pictured on top are Tiffany Amador, Becky Balderas and Stephanie Balderas. ... more

Photo: Homer Marquez/Plainview Hearld

Locals prepare for Spartan Race

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While most of us spent the week stuffing turkeys and making sure the couch didn’t float away during football games, 10 local fitness enthusiasts spent the holiday braving weather and training for one of the world’s hardest and most endurance-testing obstacle courses, the Spartan Race.

“We’ve been training really hard,” said Plainview Police Captain Manuel Balderas, who is a part of the team heading to Glen Rose on Dec. 14 to meet up with the traveling endurance race, coined as “a true test of will” by ESPN.

“I think we’ll represent Plainview very well. Everybody has been dedicated to working out, and it’s going to pay off and be fun,” said Balderas.

Started in 2001, the Spartan Race is a touring obstacle course that makes stops all over North America, Europe and Asia.

Differing from common 5K runs, marathons and triathlons, the Spartan Race features unique obstacles across various rugged terrains, spanning from one mile to marathon distances.

Participants are run through the gauntlet as they crawl, climb, dodge, drag, throw and think on their feet as they wade through a military style obstacle course featuring mud pits, gravel pits, cardio and plyometric workout stations as well as climbing and dragging stations.

To survive, the Spartan website explained, runners must have “total athleticism, absolute discipline and mental toughness.”

“It’s going to break us,” said Plainview Police Detective Al Longoria, who will also be traveling with the group. “But we’ve been training really hard and the people with the biggest hearts are going to be the ones that complete the race.”

In Glen Rose, in the hills just outside of the metroplex, the Plainview group has opted to take on Spartan “Beast” race, which spans a hellish 10-12-mile course.

“They don’t let you know what exactly is in the course, so we don’t know what to expect; so we’re training for the worst,” said Balderas, who explained that the group of five men and five women work out in different parts of the city, but prefer a hilly, caliche pit near Southwest 3rd Street.

“There’s not a lot of hills in Plainview so we work out there and set up our own obstacle courses,” said Balderas, who uses equipment also used by the local workout collective, Fierce Intense Training or F.I.T.

F.I.T, which is a workout program open to the public, was started by Longoria, Balderas and his wife Stephanie almost three years ago.